I'm putting this here because it's something that is more homebrew than anything else until I see it come out officially for Interface Zero. I'm also putting it here as one of the reasons I am asking is to add a little bit of Shadow Run to IZ. I love how IZ is set up and this idea has as much to do with Chromebook 2 for Cyberpunk 2020 as it does with Shadow Run.

I have this potentially wild and crazy idea for the world of Interface Zero but I'm not exactly sure how I want to implement it. The idea is rather simple in that I want to have elves, dwarves and orcs running around as potential PCs and I'm not exactly sure how to best do that. My reasoning comes from two other games in the genre that I am thinking of blending into IZ as seamlessly as possible.

The two most glaringly obvious ways is to tweak either the Human 2.0 or Simulacra "races" to get the desired result. Elves get a d6 in agility but might need to put 2 points in Vigor to raise it at character creation and are prone to being Zeeks in some fashion. Dwarves should have both the flaw of small and the edge of brawny and maybe start with a d6 in Vigor and beyond that I'm not sure. Orcs get a d6 in strength and the edge of brawny with also the possibility of the flaw of bloodthirsty to start with. Or should I be looking to tweak the hybrid race for this?

In Shadow Run, elves, dwarves and orcs are full on non-human races and progresses from there. In cyberpunk 2020, specifically chromebook 2 there was a section in the back for exotics and while most of that was dedicated to creating furry characters, there was like a page to a page and a half dedicated to making fantasy races. I'm slightly more inclined to take notes from Shadow Run but I still want to run this as IZ and not the SW version of SR.

In some ways this will makes things a lot weirder for IZ but I'm a weirdo and I'm not shy about it. But any suggestion on finishing what I have started in my head? I'm doing this more to add choices and make an experience everyone can enjoy and doing a copy, paste and tweak from the files of a non-SW idea to have it part of a SW licensee is the goal so as to make things a lot more interesting.

1. Open your Core rules to whatever page the Races are on. (In SWD that is p20, but is no doubt a different page in the Explorer's Edition)

2. Copy the rules for elves and dwarves to some convenient place.

3. Make copies and distribute to players at character creation.

4. Say these are also choices for IZ characters.

Boom. Done.

As for Orcs, there are so many interpretations of them, I don;t know exactly what I'd do, but they can't be that hard to make. Though a word of advice: generally you don't want to have a race start with the Brawny edge, because even in a race known for being strong and tough there are guys who are stronger and tougher. The Hybrids are kind of the exception because they are what they are compared to Humans. Orcs are orcs, soe are just stronger and tougher._________________"Well, you do know what those who underestimate tigers always say right?"
"What?"
"They scream, 'Oh god help me I'm being mauled to death by a tiger.'"

Take a look at World of warcarft and similiar games.
Now think a little bit in the future. There are similiar games in the future.
And there are surley "addicted" people that live more in this games then in the real life.
Now imagine a genmodification where your body change to the, for you, more important image of YOU.
So you have some looner that looks like elves, orcs and dwarves. If ity really a genetic modification it breed true.

Now add some reason that more people think its cool to change themself.
Maybe some pop star that is elve.
Maybe a very succesfull streetgang/bikergang likes to be orcs.

I may just use the half-orc stats in SWD for orcs. I'm still wondering how to explain their existence. Genetic remodeling is probably how it starts, in this they'd be no different than the hybrids already in place. Now I'm starting to wonder how relatively new this should be. Are folks just now in 2090 doing this or should I have had them started earlier and there are some folks walking around that were never anything but a fantasy race. I'm trying not to go to the SR standard explanation that magic returns and this is the result. Psychic powers are widely available in IZ but unless puts the trappings of ritual magic that isn't so much how they work and shouldn't cause that radical a change in bio-chemistry regardless. Part of it is my own logic at work as this is radical body sculpting that goes down to the genetic level for true permanency.

Give them d6 Strength, Infravision, and Outsider (porcine features only an ork could love), with a note that they cannot take the Small hindrance (orks are bigger than humans).

And if you're using ShadowRun then you don't have to explain anything. No one understands why there are metahuman races, just that magic came back and made sub-species of homo sapien._________________"Got a problem? I've got the solution: Rocket Launcher."
"Not against a Servitor."
"... We're all gonna die."

Give them d6 Strength, Infravision, and Outsider (porcine features only an ork could love), with a note that they cannot take the Small hindrance (orks are bigger than humans).

And if you're using ShadowRun then you don't have to explain anything. No one understands why there are metahuman races, just that magic came back and made sub-species of homo sapien.

I'm trying to keep this IZ. I'm thinking of explaining them as new simluacrum or the latest gene mods to take hold as a fashion statement/lifestyle. Or both in some ways.

Both dwarves and orcs make for a fairly good labor and/or military simulacra while elves are almost tailor made for the entertainment industry in various forms. As for gene mod add ons, the IZ main book has Hellfrost and Blood Throne advertised in the catalog section as MMORPGs so the idea that somebody would want to remodel themselves to be like their on-line character in either one isn't so far fetched. In other ways it could be like an extreme cosplay taken too far.

...or the latest gene mods to take hold as a fashion statement/lifestyle. Or both in some ways.

THIS

Quote:

As for gene mod add ons, the IZ main book has Hellfrost and Blood Throne advertised in the catalog section as MMORPGs so the idea that somebody would want to remodel themselves to be like their on-line character in either one isn't so far fetched. In other ways it could be like an extreme cosplay taken too far.

and THIS

I think that's your ticket in terms of justifying the races in the IZverse. Some Neko + Blood Throne/Hellfrost MMO geekers looking to take it to an extreme. Either, or both, of those MMO's could be run away successes like our contemporary World of Warcraft and some players -heck maybe even many- could be very obsessive about it. So the fans start visiting cribsecs of some sprawlanders well versed in the art of gene-hacking. Maybe they take along some Black Mist and that yanks off all the inhibitions and lets the creativity run rampant with the result that these gene-hacking sprawlanders go too far.

If you were to go with Blood Throne, the playable Orcs are called Sharan-Ghori Orcs. Their defining traits are:

The also get any 2 of Cleave, Favored Opponent and Rage, but I don't know if I'd bother with the SW equivalents, although maybe their favored opponents are a specific race amongst the Hellfrost Nekos. The Berserk edge would equate to Rage and the Counterattack edge would be the closest to Cleave. I'd also probably nail any Neko that's taken an MMO race with Delusional (major).

Elf and Dwarf are already in the SWD main book and I can just port them over without too much fuss although the all thumbs bit for elves would make things really interesting for those that want an elven hacker. Orcs, well I think we can take the half-orc from the main and bring them in as the stat adjustments and all of them might take the hinderance Delusional for the fact that they are blurring the line between fantasy and reality so much that telling one from the other is extremely difficult for the character if said character were to even try to keep the two identities and realities separate from one another. I know there are folks who take these things way too seriously now, take that into the IZ reality where body sculpting and gene modding are so prevalent and you have an interesting potential mix to say the very least.